Will a 20 amp breaker be enough or will it trip the breaker, if not what about 30 amps.

I could have had the car today ( 11/14/11 ) but I had a few things that I had to do. The sales person is scheduled to pick me up at my house tomorrow at 1:00 PM and drive me to the dealership.

I am glad I am picking on off the lot instead of waiting 2 months, I probably woud not ordered as many options but I will be happy I got them.

18 more hours

mike1

11-14-2011, 07:58 PM

Assuming I am plugging into 110 volts

Will a 20 amp breaker be enough or will it trip the breaker, if not what about 30 amps.

I could have had the car today ( 11/14/11 ) but I had a few things that I had to do. The sales person is scheduled to pick me up at my house tomorrow at 1:00 PM and drive me to the dealership.

I am glad I am picking on off the lot instead of waiting 2 months, I probably woud not ordered as many options but I will be happy I got them.

18 more hours

A 15 amp breaker is plenty since the 120V EVSE charges at a maximum of 12 amps.

barry252

11-14-2011, 08:02 PM

A 15 amp breaker is plenty since the 120V EVSE charges at a maximum of 12 amps.

I agree. I've used a Kill-a-watt meter and found the actual draw to be about 11.75 amps. For your initial use, make sure you get the two green LED's lit up to indicate your voltage and grounding are good. Plug in and watch your dashboard light initially light in yellow, then turn green to indicate good charging. Check again in an hour. If the charger senses something amiss, the car won't recognize it and you won't get an alarm. If all is good, Happy Volting! No Gas!

Volt 63

silvercorvette

11-14-2011, 08:03 PM

Thanks for the quick reply

silvercorvette

11-14-2011, 08:13 PM

Believe it or not but I have a four car garage and didn't pick up the car because I don't have enough room. I had to rearrange some stuff in my garage and put the lawn mower outside but the Volt is going to be parked outside for a few days. The weather is very mild in SC and I doubt I'll need the heater. Then temps will be in the low 70s Tuesday and drop to the low 50s at night. I was outside today wearing shorts, "T" shirt and flip flops and was comfortable.

bonaire

11-14-2011, 08:50 PM

It may be better to replace a 20A breaker with a 15A one and use a brand-new GFPC outlet for the 120V charger plug. You want as tight and new a circuit as possible. Good luck w/ this - sounds like you're close.

silvercorvette

11-14-2011, 09:38 PM

I had considered adding a 220 volt outlet myself and buying the charger (I think the cheapest one is $500). It was legal to wire your own house in NY but I am not sure about SC. I am not so sure it is worth the money. The faster charging time isn't important but I read a thread on this forum that the pre-heating function works better with 220 volts. It doesn't get that cold here in Anderson SC and winter does not kick to it lowest temps till mid December and it only lasts till March. Most of the time I can get by with a sweater or light windbreaker. If it is true that the pre-warming works better a 220 volts I'll wait till it gets down to SCs worst / lowest temps to see it pre-heating is important.

For the time being I'll just plug in with 110 volts.

OK here comes the tin foil hat time. It may not be important now but electric car owner are not paying the tax that gasoline buyers pay, the tax money is meant to pay for road maintenance. It would not be hard for the state to check DVM records to find out who isn't paying road tax. With 110 volt charging it wild be difficult for the state to determine what percent of driving is electric, but with a designated charge station it would not be difficult to figure out what percentage of you driving is electric and charge a road tax on that amount electricity. For some people it would not be much but I have read that some drivers are running on almost 100% electricity. When (not if) electric cars become more wide spread the state will have reduced road tax revenue and they will start looking at other ways to tax EV drivers

solar_dave

11-14-2011, 09:49 PM

OK here comes the tin foil hat time. It may not be important now but electric car owner are not paying the tax that gasoline buyers pay, the tax money is meant to pay for road maintenance. It would not be hard for the state to check DVM records to find out who isn't paying road tax. With 110 volt charging it wild be difficult for the state to determine what percent of driving is electric, but with a designated charge station it would not be difficult to figure out what percentage of you driving is electric and charge a road tax on that amount electricity. For some people it would not be much but I have read that some drivers are running on almost 100% electricity. When (not if) electric cars become more wide spread the state will have reduced road tax revenue and they will start looking at other ways to tax EV drivers

With 220 it is worse than that for me, they don't get to see the load when I charge mid day cause the solar feeds the charger, the electrons don't cross the meter at all. Many utilities offer a special metered rate for EV plugin.

As far a road taxes go, that will be easy for them, once they figure out there is an impact to revenue, it will just get added to the registration fees. My fees are high already, they have a personal property tax in AZ by value based on original MSRP.

silvercorvette

11-14-2011, 11:49 PM

..........,they have a personal property tax in AZ by value based on original MSRP.

I haven't checked the exact number but I think SC with it's property tax is about the same as NY without the property tax. In NY I would pay 8.5% sales tax on the full purchase price of $42,575 = $3,618.88. But in SC the sales tax is caped at $300.00. In NY it is somewhere around $100 a year for a registration but in SC I expect to pay somewhere around $600 to $800 the first year then have it reduced every year till it comes down to almost nothing after 15 years. I think it will equal out in the long run

Steverino

11-15-2011, 12:56 AM

Where I am in Illinois it's 7.5% on purchase price. Cuts the benefit of the tax credit almost in half!

silvercorvette

11-15-2011, 01:58 AM

It may be better to replace a 20A breaker with a 15A one and use a brand-new GFPC outlet for the 120V charger plug. You want as tight and new a circuit as possible. Good luck w/ this - sounds like you're close.

I understand why a GFI would be a good idea, especially if it is parked outside in the rain, but what is the reason for a 15 A breaker?

12 more hours but who is counting.

Rusty

11-15-2011, 02:50 AM

what is the reason for a 15 A breaker?

The SAE J-1772 standard that defines EVSEs limits Level 1 EVSEs (120V) to 12 amps max. So your 120V EVSE should never draw more than 12 amps. Thus a 15 amp breaker is sufficient. If you up your circuit to a 20 amp breaker the EVSE will still only allow the car to draw 12, so your car won't charge any faster with a 20 amp breaker than it will with a 15 amp one.

But if there's a short in the line somewhere and your EVSE starts to draw 18 amps your breaker won't blow if you've gone to a 20. But your EVSE just might... That doesn't mean it's a bad idea to plug your car into a 20 amp circuit. It's not any worse than plugging anything else into a 20 amp circuit. But unless you have to share the plug with something else (another generally bad idea) you're not gaining yourself anything.

Jim I

11-15-2011, 08:31 AM

Another reason is that unless you know what gauge wire has been run, you could overload the circuit and overheat the wires. That could possibly start a fire inside the walls - not a good thing.....

If the house is older and the wire used was #14, then a 15 amp breaker is the correct size. A 20 amp breaker should only be used if the wire size is #12 and the outlet is rated for 20 amps.

JMHO

C-5277

silvercorvette

11-15-2011, 09:49 AM

My house is less than 5 years old, I built another garage shortly after I moved in Aug 2007, my attached garage has one 20 amp breaker feeding 4 outlets, my un attached garage has four 20 amp breakers. For now I'll just the outlet in my unattached garage and park the car outside till I clear some space in the garage.

Raymondjram

11-15-2011, 11:08 AM

If any state wants to enact a fair tax system based on road usage, all they have to do is have the odometer (life mileage meter) read during every annual inspection. Then charge a few cents every thousand miles or more. This way, they get their road improvement income based on real world vehicle travel. But I also recommend increasing gasoline and diesel fuel taxes, too. The rest of the drivers actually contaminate the roads more than EV drivers, so they have to pay more. The extra fuel taxes will also increase EV purchases.

I prefer to pay road taxes according to my real use and have everyone drive an EV!

Rusty

11-15-2011, 04:34 PM

all they have to do is have the odometer (life mileage meter) read during every annual inspection. Then charge a few cents every thousand miles or more. This way, they get their road improvement income based on real world vehicle travel.

Almost half of my Volt driving has been on long haul (mostly out of state) trips. For those, I already pay gas tax to fund road construction. Are you suggesting that it's fair to tax someone such as me twice for the same mile? Should I have to pay an EV tax for miles driven using gas? An equitable solution may be more difficult than simply reading the odometer.

And my state (at least) doesn't do annual inspections of EVs. Other than for the taxation purpose you propose, why would they want to?